Final KM: Dauphine St 5, OVO Women’s Tour St 2

Last opportunity for the fast men at the Dauphine and they grabbed it with both pedals. Over in the UK, the tough circuit set up an exciting finale at the Women’s Tour.

Dauphine Stage 5: La Tour-de-Salvagny to Macon, 175km

Phil Bauhaus played it sharp, smart and solo to outsprint both Arnaud Demare (FDJ) and Direct Energie’s Bryan Coqaurd. The young German sprinter made good on his 4th place on Stage 12 of the and 5th place earlier this week, opening up with a blaze of power to take his first WorldTour win. The GC remains the same with Thomas De Gendt still in yellow as the race heads towards three days in mountains.

What is it with German sprinter forenames…

Not many in peloton who share a name with an art movement. Also another German sprinter without Germanic first name: John, André, Marcel etc

Jumbo Bee Koen Bouwman was out out in the break again, this time taking enough King of the Mountain points to make the polka dot jersey his own. A huge effort that saw him finish last, nearly 9mins behind Bauhaus.

Team Sunweb had a great finish with Bauhaus, but teammate Chad Haga had an action packed start start. Below are the highlights, the full story can be read on Chad’s Twitter . All I can say is chapeau Team Dimension Data

OVO Energy Women’s Tour Stage 2: Stoke-on-Trent , 139km

An unrelenting day on the Stoke circuits produced a stage that had everything. The bare bones tell that Amy Pieters (Boels-Dolmans) took a gutsy sprint win from a group of ten riders. Canyon SRAM’s Hannah Barnes placed second, enough to leap the British rider up to 3rd on GC. Ellen Van Dijk (Sunweb) rounded out the podium. Race leader Kasia Niewiadoma and her WM3 teammate Marianne Vos finished in the lead group to retain their lead at the top of the GC.